Charlene the AE102

Agreed, it's definitely nice to have a spare for parts sitting around.

I won't be keeping the old one around for spares, I'll get the good bits off that I can but I can't afford the storage space for a full car-load of leftovers (already got a storage shed with parts in it that I need to clear out).

Very nice car! what engine is in her?

Wes16v wrote:

Very nice car! what engine is in her?

7AFE/C52

So, over the last few weeks I've been removing bits and pieces mainly from the interior so it could still be driven if necessary, but since the rego has now lapsed and Toyota Nationals is fast approaching I decided it was time to get started on the big stuff.


First up was the wheels - still needed rubber between the suspension and the ground so acquired a set of AE82 Twinky S2 wheels for free.....some things from the 80s should stay in the 80s. Had some "fun" getting one of the hub-centric rings off (had to resort to the old boiling-water trick after attempts with a flat-blade screwdriver had turned it into a porcupine instead of a ring). Also, by some miracle one of the tyres had a screw embedded flush in one of the tread blocks but was still holding air some 3 months after it was last driven









Then came the front end - lights, Hella grille and FX bumper. Haven't seen the front end this exposed in a _looooong_ time. Figured once the front bar was off I'd might as well get the intake off too, which meant pulling the TRD 3-point strut brace as well.





Next up will be cam cover and probably the front half of the exhaust, followed by the suspension which will mark the start of installing on Mark II (since I don't have a spare set of struts around and can't afford to have Mark I sitting on blocks in the driveway).

so whats the plan?

miib14 wrote:

so whats the plan?

Same as it has been for a while, just with a more definite time frame (Easter long weekend for Toyota Nationals) - strip the remaining good bits from the Mark I shell and put them on Mark II (probably hold off on a couple of things as I might go a slightly different direction).

Transferred over the number plates today (despite a few headaches at the RTA) so HIR07A is officially back on the road now

Took the cam cover and intake plenum off MarkI the other day in preparation to swap it over to MarkII, I must say underneath was in _incredibly_ good condition for a non-reco engine that has done 404,000km, not having EGR is probably a big contributor but I was extremely inconsistent with oil changes, chopped and changed between brands and weights and it still looks like it could do another 400,000 (if the rings and valve stem seals weren't buggered)




Excuse the photos taken with a potato, kind of hard to take pictures on a mobile when you've got greasy hands and don't want the phone to get dirty. I'll take some proper photos when I pull MarkII's cover off to compare.


Also swapped out the headliner for the re-trimmed one from MarkI, orange snow is a real pain in the arse but it's nice to finally have my headroom back. Proper trim removal tools also make a world of difference, although putting trim pieces back in is much easier than removing them (without breaking)

That's just crazy clean. How long have you been running without an EGR?

kennydang91 wrote:

That's just crazy clean. How long have you been running without an EGR?

404,000km Australia didn't have EGR fitted to the 4A and 7A.

Oh wow lol something tells me the increased temperatures and emission from the EGR is one of the contributors to the common oil ring issues on these cars.

kennydang91 wrote:

Oh wow lol something tells me the increased temperatures and emission from the EGR is one of the contributors to the common oil ring issues on these cars.

Nope she burned oil with the best of them, both rings and stem seals. Probably the biggest beneficial thing was that she was run in properly, for the first half of her life she was only doing open-road highway so long heat cycles, varying load, and relatively few cold starts.

Very nice car!

Anyone know what this big long metal tube thingy is called? I undid a couple of random bolts under the car and it fell off...

LOL

you don't need that, just toss it. Weight reduction!

gold94corolla wrote:

LOL

you don't need that, just toss it.  Weight reduction!

Zoomie pipes FTW

So picked these up for a steal last weekend, for those not in the know the top-spec AE101 Levins/Truenos came with a Superstrut suspension option and twin-pot 275mm front discs, which are a sizeable improvement over the factory non-superstrut 255mm single-pots. A common upgrade for AE92s in the past, common practice required the discs to be turned down to ~260mm through as the caliper mounting points on the MacPherson struts were closer in to the hub compared to the Superstrut. In my mind the whole point of buying big brakes is to have big brakes, so going back down to a disc only 5mm bigger than factory seemed like a backwards step. Fortunately, other trailblazers out there have found out that you can the pad-carriers from the big-brake ST20x Celicas with a tiny bit of grinding for clearance, so I'm currently hunting down a set of ST204 front pad carriers (fortunately Toyota Aus spec'd the big front single-pots for the ADM models, otherwise I'd be trying to find an SSII/III 3SGE ST202 import with the big brakes but WITHOUT Superstrut).

Should be looking at getting the exhaust fitted soon too, just need to go over the joins to make sure the welds are still good (it's 10 years old now) and get a fresh set of gaskets front to rear.

Gone but not forgotten (well it's only been 5 hours, but still...)

RIP

So the preparations for Toyotafest and the 50th Annniversary of the Corolla started a little late (considering the show is next weekend), but I'm not going to have time to get everything done that I'd ideally want to so decided to focus on the small quick wins that don't require too much hassle.

Today was Short Shifter Day, which meant the whole lower dash had to come out (both front sills, glovebox, driver's side under-dash panel, both halves of the centre console, radio surround, storage cube, and the cig-lighter/ashtray/cupholder).  Out with the old stock shifter, in with the new (well, from the old car) DIY short-shifter (pivot-ball moved as per TRD unit with height retained but throw length and angle both reduced, no cut-n-shut dodginess here) along with solid shifter cradle bushes and a couple of M8 washers to space the cradle up (the gear selector ball of the short shifter sits lower so it hits the tunnel unless the cradle is spaced up)


Before

Spacers installed

Finished product (doesn't look shorter I know but that's kinda the point of the design)

Since the dash was out I decided to install my JDM ignition barrel light and footwell lights too, no wiring required as they plug straight in to the same circuit as the dome light (each has a pass-through plug so you piggy-back them all together), although the ignition barrel light ring is a pain to install (you basically have to bend the dash away from the barrel in order to slip the ring in due to the LED housing on one side).  When I get a chance I'll stick the footwell lights up somewhere solid (they're just wedged in place at the moment) but it'll do for now.  By some minor miracle I managed to get everything back together without breaking anything (except a crack in the inside of the dash from bending it out around the ignition) nor did I have any leftover screws (which I believe is actually a first for me).

Whilst all this was happening I was dodging one hell of a thunderstorm, was working in the driveway since the garage was packed with gear from the storage shed but a sudden heavy downpour and clouds that threatened hail made me scramble to clear out enough space to edge the car inside......which meant I had almost no room to open the doors to work in the footwells, so I ended up just reversing back out in to the driveway whenever the rain calmed down.

Over the next few days I'll probably tackle the front speakers and tweeters, as well as maybe the JDM Clean Ace air purifier and Clean Box rubbish bin installs, and if I'm _really_ keen I'll take the front bar off and swap the air-con fans over so I can install the Hella driving-light grille (I've got a spare fan with a chunk cut out of the shroud to clear the back of the driver's side driving light).

Since there was a decent chance Charlene Mk2 was going to be the only AE10x in attendance to Toyotafest (turns out she wasn't, but technically the other one that turned up was Charlene Mk1 so I guess it still counts) I decided to cash in some favours with a mate who liked sparky work and get the FXGT fogs finally wired up (after 5+ years of sitting in the front bar all lonely and disconnected, I had finally gotten around to getting a Euro rear fog switch to go under the power mirror controls). At the same time I finally got around to installing the JDM clock back in to the dash, as well as the old VDO/JL speakers for a bit of a sound upgrade. And whilst I was on a bit of a roll, in went the ignition-barrel and footwell lights (got to love JDM factory options that plug-and-play into existing ports/wiring on the fuse box, they even time out properly like the dome light does)

Since the fogs would require some wiring work around the front of the car, I also made the decision to re-fit the Hella grille. What looks to be a simple grille swap is actually not, due to the fact that the driver's side Hell intrudes on the A/C fan, and to remove the A/C fan (I chopped up the one on the old car and kept it to retrofit on to Mk2) requires the removal of the headlights, grille, bumper, bumper support, oil cooler, horn and bonnet catch, all for two screws and two rubber plugs.

In the middle of disassembly


End result 8 hours later (after we discovered and fixed the mixed-up wiring - fogs would come on with high-beams and the Hellas with the lows, the opposite of what they should)




JL vs Toyota paper cone


And after a quick wash the next morning, ready to get covered with bugs like every trip I make for a Toymods event (granted it didn't rain this time, which was a first)


Still got to take some photos of the ignition and footwell lights, but you can only see them when they're dark

Very nice man! Hella Grill

I like how it looks with this rims!

A two-part update, separated by ~3 weeks

Part 1: My recently-installed fog lights decided to quit working just before Christmas (to be fair we don't have fog in summer anyway but I just like using them, even if it's illegal), figured that either the switch had gone bad (it was buzzing instead of switching them off even when they were working) or the globes had blown (could well be the originals from the 90s still in there).  Had some time yesterday to investigate (the benefits of work shutting down over the break, 3-week holiday yay even if I had to burn 7 days of annual leave to get it), started with the switch and the relay but they all seemed fine, so figured the globes had gone - jacked up the front of the car to change them (and find out what size they are so I could get some cool yellow fog-breakers), only to find the shared ground wire for them had detached its solder and broken free



Since it wasn't my solder job (and I have no idea whether I still have a soldering iron or where it might be), I drove over to my mate's house (the one who did the wiring) for a quick patch job.  15 minutes later and they were all fixed, plus I switched switches with him as his never buzzed (figure it's a tiny short in a contact inside).  Then figured we'd swap over my old AE101 Levin seats for his spare AE111 Levin ones as my driver's side one had collapsed significantly and the bolster foam on the right thigh area had worn through to the rebar.  The drive home was soooooo much more comfortable, even if I was sitting a little bit higher than normal and no longer had lumbar adjustment.




Part 2: My birthday-present-to-myself arrived a little early, and even though it was stinking hot on Saturday (and I ended up with a bull-ant sting to the face because he crawled on to my sweat towel) I couldn't be bothered waiting for cooler weather to arrive.  Now that I've got a USB input on my headunit (and I haven't needed cassettes since 2004) there wasn't much need for the double-din cubbyhole any more, and since I love collecting the JDM options it was a no-brainer

Enter the Toyota Original Accessory Multi-Box and For Your Life Scene spring-loaded drawer (got to love Japlish...)




Next weekend will hopefully be exhaust-fitting time and maybe a trial-fit of the 275mm SS twinpot brakes now that my ST204 pad carriers have arrived

nice work Ian, loving the updates

And for all the cardigan-wearers out there, the ultimate in car-mod minutiae - upgraded windscreen washer jets.

We all know that the 90s jet-type Toyota washers suck - two piddly streams of water concentrated nowhere near where the wiper blade starts, so you're guaranteed a couple of screechy dry sweeps with the blade before they actually start cleaning anything. Enter the 5th generation Camry to the rescue! Toyota switched to a resonance-chamber fan spray with these models, and the results are night and day. Not only that, but they clip straight in with no modification required (there's enough slack in the stock hoses and 90 degree fittings to compensate for the different barb orientation, I've got some 4mm hose offcuts if I ever want to tidy it up)






Upgrade yours today!